A “Farewell” Post

By Richard Southard

I’ve been thinking for a long while about what sort of “farewell” post I should make. What constitutes that kind of post? A few inspirational words? Some witty joke? A literal “farewell”?

My most personal farewell was probably just giving my albums of the year, but since I’ve already done that and need to make another post, I’ll have to try something different. I guess I can start by saying that it was awesome being able to make all these posts. With music being such a huge part of my life, sharing that has felt like presenting a piece of it, like sharing a childhood story or going through a bunch of pictures. As long as I gave at least one person something interesting to listen to, then I consider my efforts a success.

But of course, those posts weren’t my primary focus. The real objective was to read all of the submissions, and to discover the work of both local and distant writers. Seeing the submissions come in shows how far-reaching this journal really is. While it might be based in a small town in Maine, its clear from both our submissions and viewers that it goes much further than that.

It also shows that The River was experiment worth doing. While we’ve advertised it as an extension off of the Sandy River Review (which it still is), the level of support we’ve had marks it as something that’s quite independent as well. This was the first job that I’ve ever held as an editor, and after this semester, it was likely the perfect one to start with.

Thanks for all the reads, support, and submissions!